Winters' fire
by DaKJ
Summary: A tale of dragohunting, set in the country of Sweden it sees two men, both dragonhunters, chasing a beast of legend in a land of snow and ice.


Snow flew across the girls field of vision and sharp ice-particles struck into her eyes, making her shrug backwards. The quick loss of balance sent a sharp sensation of fear into her body and her muscles reacted instinctively by becoming even faster and more effective. She threw herself to the left and tumbled on her back over the snow covered ground, the second before a bright blue flame shot like a laser beam through the snow where she had been standing merely a second before. Snow disappeared as if it had sunk though the ground and green grass and brown dirt became visible before even they were burned away by the immense heat, leaving a smoking trail in the ground as if a giant spear had struck there. The girl quickly got to her feet, her white and grey clothing blending in with the snow flying through the air. She regained her sense of direction for a few seconds and then started to sprint though the blizzard, the long cloak draped around her constantly changing color between white, grey and black, distorting her silhouette and making her almost invisible.

A great roar sounded somewhere behind her, but she did not look back. She breathed heavily and deeply through the white cloth covering her face, with the moisture of her breath steaming in the air before her only to be blown away by the wind. Her boots found good foothold in the thick snow and she ran quickly, as another roar rose up behind her, neither closer nor farther away. It was following her. She pounced to her side to avoid another jet of blue fire which turned the ice dancing with the wind to steam. As she rolled on the ground a ball of fire appeared within her hand and she threw it backwards. Another roar, one of anger and pain. She got to her feet and continued to run. Shadows of trees appeared before her, closing in on her figure. She ran faster to reach their safety. Another fireball conjured from her hand and shot backwards too, disappearing into the misty air. She heard no sound. She had missed her target, which meant it wasn't right behind her anymore. She ran faster.

She got a seconds' warning by the sound of a large body impacting into the ground just beside her, and she threw herself to the ground before a long, clawed forearm swept through the air like a scythe to harvest her life. She rolled over on her back and swept her hands upwards even before she stopped. Great chains of blue light protracted from her palms and spun themselves around the dragons' great body, tightening their grip to press its wings and arms to its body. It roared in anger, its eyes glowing of power and determination, and more fire breathed from its mouth, striking the girl full front. She conjured forth a great wall of thick ice before she rolled out of the way of the blazing blue inferno which burned through the ice in seconds. She staggered to her feet and looked her adversary in the eyes. There was rage in the dragons' eyes, a rage controlled by determination and intelligence, a rage directed like a sword being forged in the fire. For a second she barely stood there and looked the beast in the eyes, a second which seemed to stretch into infinity along a thin line that became her entire existence, so that every movement seemed sluggish, as if passed through liquid, and every thought became a long streak so that its meaning disappeared in time.

The hourlong second passed and time sped up and seemed to double in speed as it did so. The girl darted away once again to the safety of the trees while the dragon roared and flexed its muscles, the glowing chains that bound is blue-green skin beginning to crack and squeak. The girl reached the first trees and hid behind their great trunks just as the dragons great muscles burst the chains and freed is, its wings spanning outwards in defiance and roaring in triumph. The girl breathed heavily but stayed in her hiding spot, her clothes constantly changing color to mask her figure. She heard sniffing noises behind her back, approaching the spot where she stood. Her eyes, the only part of her face showing, glowed with ice-cold determination, reinforced by their snow-grey color. Silently she reached her hand down to her hip and slid a short blade from within its sheath. She dared a quick glance to her side to observe the beast; it had almost reached the tree line. The wind and flying ice had almost worn down her tracks; it was trying to follow her scent.

It was a massive beast indeed, standing on all four its back reached almost three meters above the ground, and the red-green spikes running along its spine making it even taller. A small head on a long neck swept across the ground, sniffing for its prey. The skin glimmered in the dim light in turquoise, blue and green, and its underbelly was only slightly lighter in color, as if bleached by the closeness to the white snow. The powerful wings flexed outwards and vibrated, agitated by the hunt as if they had a life of their own. The girls' head darted back behind the tree. She breathed deeply, preparing herself and waiting. The short blade held perfectly steady in her hand. She waited while the sniffing noises came closer and closer, while she felt power surging through her veins across the back of her hand and into the sword, blue and red threads of energy circling their way across the blade like glowing snakes. The noises came closer and closer, and she waited, power resting just within her arm, ready to strike. The sniffing came once, twice, just behind her. She waited.

A sniff to her right. As if that was the signal she had been waiting for she spun to her left, shoulder pressing against the firm trunk she reared around to face the great dragon, its body appearing into view tail first, then body, throat, neck and head. Its nose had gone around the other side of the tree, meaning that the tree was between her and the beasts' head. As she lifted the sword high above her head she screamed loudly, a challenging scream to her enemy. A great eye, as larger that her fist and green like spring-grass moved to fix her gaze and look upon her in defiance, as if to reprimand her for what she was about to do. But there was no surprise in those eyes, only a greater determination. In her mind she apologized to the beast as the sword cut into its skin and ran through flesh fizzling with power, burning the cut as it went and cleaving the glaring eye neatly into two.

The roar that rose from the dragons' mouth was greater than any before, a roar of absolute pain from a being having thought itself to be invincible. Its body trashed and shook, its head swinging from side to side and crashing into the tree trunk, sending cascades of snow falling on the girls head. She backed away, swinging her sword ready to strike at whatever would come for her. The dragon lunged blindly at her, it massive jaws snapping together like crushing rocks. She sidestepped and struck once again, scarring the dragons' snout with cuts, flesh-red wounds appearing in the turquoise skin, creating more pain for it. All the while she was dodging and jumping, trying to find an opening to strike the throat. The dragon lunged and breathed fire at her, but she avoided it with lightning-fast reflexes, her legs and body becoming almost a blur of motion and disappearing even more in the blizzard, her camouflage adding even more to the effect.

Suddenly the dragon lunged far to her right, too far off to even hit her. Instinctively she jumped backwards, only to find herself facing the right side of the dragons' side, with its undamaged eye staring directly at her. The gaze absolutely took her breath away, and she immediately knew that she had done something wrong. The dragons' head became a blur of motion before it crashed into her chest, sending her flying through the air with the wind buzzing in her ears before her movement was stopped by the hard surface of a tree trunk, pinning her body between the tree and the dragon like iron being hammered on an anvil. Every single molecule of air was pressed out of her body by the force, and she felt her chest being compressed and her ribs breaking like twigs. Sharp pain erupted from within her, and she knew that something was being torn up inside of her. Razor-sharp bone fragments were tearing her apart from the inside out. The pressure on her chest melted away and she fell of the tree-trunk, like a piece of tape being torn off and falling to the ground. The hard impact with the ground made her cough, and she felt warm fluid filling her mouth, tasting of metal.

Her consciousness was slipping away, the grey color that was the world seemed to thicken before her eyes, and a droning sound filled her ears. As if though thick fog she heard another roar beside her, followed by a large crash as if two great bodies colliding. Sounds of fighting broke out, becoming more and more muffled as her head sank towards the ground. Something ran out of her mouth, turning the snow bright red. There was a spot in her stomach, just under her left rib, that was awfully cold. It felt as if all the warmth of her body was disappearing through that spot. She turned her head towards it, but her muscles would not obey her and the turning went slowly. Snow splashed across the side of her face and she heard something large rustling the snow close to her, moving and struggling and snoring and panting, but her head was turned so she did not see it. Her hand moved over the cold spot, and when she looked at it again it was colored red with blood.

A tree broke somewhere in the distance. Twenty meters away, two hundred meters, she could not tell. She tried to see, but her body collapsed into the snow with the mere effort of moving her head. The cold was everywhere, in her chest, in her mouth, in her stomach, in her side, in her feet. It felt as is her life was running out on the snow and being replaced by mere cold. She bit her teeth together and gathered what little thought she had inside of her and focused. Fire, she thought. Another roar, and blue light illuminated the trees, quickly followed by one more roar. Fire, she thought, and deep within her something gathered, small particles of power clumped together into one coherent formation, ready to command. Her vision clouded, a great shadow swept before her eyes. Her eyes seemed to be filling up with milk as her sight became more unclear. The great shadow hit several trees and broke them as if they were made of matches. It roared, its skin blue like opals and its teeth shining white. Fire, she thought, and fire coursed through her veins, gathering at the spots where she told it to, to where her blood was being extinguished.

Fire, she thought, and the fire attacked her body, gripping tightly to her wounds and sending chocks of pain shaking her body in spasms and making lightning dance across her eyes. The pain was everywhere; it coursed through her very being as the fire attacked deep inside her very body, scarring her insides and welding together the places where she was bleeding. The heat was like welding steel and fizzling noises rose from her shaking body and steam and smoke floated in the air from where she lay. The heat dissipated and with a great thud she shook one last time and then hit the ground, burying her face deep in the snow. Her mind tried to flee from the chock of the pain, but she made it stay. Water, she thought. The thought disappeared like a school of fish scattering when disturbed. Water, she thought. A flap of great wings was carried to her by a faint wind. Water, she thought, and water began to form within her chest, carefully pouring out from a source deep inside of her and filling the spaces where once blood had flown.

Something stirred around her, and she felt herself being gripped by strong limbs and leaving the ground. The wind buzzed even greater in her ears, and she seemed to notice the ground going further and further away from her, until the tree disappeared into the thick grey fog that covered everything and the world was naught but an endless grey mass. A slow, steady beating of great wings was registered by her ears. Water, she thought.

And then she fainted at last, while the great opal-blue dragon carried her in its claws far away from where she had been.


End file.
